“British newspapers and press freedom campaigners heaved
a sigh of relief after a government-appointed commission stepped back from
proposals to impose charges for disclosure requests and, on 1 March, Cabinet
Office Minister Matt Hancock announced ‘We will not make any legal changes to
FoI’ … But might FoI supporters be cheering too soon? The Commission makes
more than 20 recommendations ...”

“The
London premiere of Portrait of a
Soldier, an hour-long documentary about the 1944 Warsaw Uprising shown at
the Polish Embassy in London on 14 January, transported me and others present
into the gut-wrenching brutality of the German occupation of Warsaw and the
tragic heroism of the biggest and bloodiest resistance action that ever took
place in Nazi-occupied Europe. At least 180,000 civilians and 18,000
insurgent fighters were killed. The long post-war Soviet occupation of Poland
and later political cover-ups mean that the story of the Uprising remains
relatively unknown to this day.”

“What
struck me most listening to anti-corruption activists such as conference
speaker Monica Macovei, a Romanian MEP, and above all to media colleagues
from Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine, Bosnia-Herzegovina and elsewhere,
was the sense of how vulnerable society in general and the media in
particular feels about the prevalence of corruption, the lack of
implementation of laws protecting journalists – and the way internal
corruption facilitates the insidious return of Soviet-style agents of
influence on many levels.”

“Efforts to seize people traffickers’ boats in the
Mediterranean will fail unless the EU also fights the criminal gangs in
Europe… People trafficking is now the second most lucrative criminal trade
after arms smuggling … the nucleus of the criminals remains untouched if
efforts are just focused on the boats” (AEJ meeting with Eugenio Ambrosi of
the International Organisation for Migration)

“As the government has stepped up its crackdown on
its critics by raiding news outlets and arresting foreign journalists… [i]ntimidating acts against
the media and anyone daring to criticise the AKP rule have become so
widespread that barely a day goes by without Turkey being invited to respect
the rule of the law and basic freedoms.”

“A new EU-directive is likely to threaten investigative
journalism throughout Europe. Its main objective is the protection against
disclosure and theft of secret business information like patents, innovative
technologies or recipes. … [T]he main reason for concern is an unreasonably
broad definition of ‘trade secrets’. Companies could sue anyone who
‘unlawfully acquires, uses or discloses’ secret business information.”

“… the EU
has been shamed into acknowledging its double standards over safeguards for
media freedom and plurality. The External Action Service’s Guidelines on
Freedom of Expression lay down the strict standards and guarantees that it
calls on non-EU states to meet, while countries inside the Union are not held
to the same standards. A worthy goal for the new Commission would be to end
that hypocrisy, and do all it can to ensure that Europe leads by example in
creating the conditions for free and independent journalism to thrive.”

"Has journalism got more dangerous?
Yes, certainly, in that the jihadis in Europe, as well as the Middle East,
have vowed to wreak ‘revenge’ for perceived insults or Western governments’
actions on many targets, including media ones."

"If the Turkish President, the Prime
Minister and the Foreign Minister all assumed that their defiant language in
response to … criticism would have made the EU back off, they clearly
miscalculated. For it increased the feeling that it can no longer be
'business as usual' and turned some of the best-known Turkey supporters
against them."

"Any referendum will be decided by
those who don’t know much about the EU and the advantages of membership. The
bias against the EU in much of the British print media, notably most
tabloids, has contributed to the EU’s widespread negative image, and has
fuelled populist political opportunism. The motives of the media pedalling
misinformation and xenophobia, whether to increase sales and/or to avoid
regulation, must be questioned."

"The best thing other journalists can do
now for Hamid [Mir] and others like him is surely to ask the tough questions
of governments and others who fail to live up to their obligation to uphold a
safe environment for free and independent journalism. The alternative will be
more of the same, or worse." Published by BBC College of Journalism blog.

"The mobility of labour in particular
has been a great boon to millions of individuals but also to economies, not
least Britain’s — and in particular that of London." Published on
Jonathan's blog (4 March
2014).

William
Horsley:An
unholy mixture: surveillance, the law and a setback for journalism (30
August 2013) "We should
not understate the seriousness of the government's attacks on those seeking
to expose its surveillance secrets. At stake is not only what the state is
entitled to do to the public, but what journalists are entitled to do to
expose it and perform the vital role of public watchdog."
Published by Open Democracy.

Firdevs Robinson:Turkey's
silent minority standing proud for the first time (20
June 2013)"Ten years of majoritarian style AKP
rule has turned Turkey into a polarized country, increasingly torn apart
between contrasting worldviews and lifestyles. … [V]ery little of what has been done … by the government …
has come to me as a total surprise. … By contrast, I have been watching the
way the opposition has emerged and conducted itself with growing amazement
each day." Published by Open
Democracy.

Firdevs Robinson:Turkey – No Laughing Matter (May
2013) "The Turks are not normally known for their
caustic satire or their ability to laugh at themselves. Irony is one of the
most difficult words to express in Turkish. But curiously, political satire
has a long and proud history in Turkey's less than pluralistic media. ... As
the country yet again comes under the spotlight for attacking the right to
freedom of expression with heavy-handed prosecutions of journalists, …
satirists sharpen their sense of humour." Published by the Foreign Policy Centre.

Firdevs Robinson:Turkey's
Syria quagmire takes a new turn (15 May 2013) "Among the many questions
raised by the recent attack, Turkey has been accused of intentionally
neglecting border security to allow the Free Syrian Army and international
jihadists to use Turkish soil along the border as a base."
Published in Open Democracy.

William Horsley:Europe
guilty too as World Press Freedom Day targets growing threats to journalists
(30 April 2013) "Surely, with millions of active bloggers, the explosion of social media
almost everywhere and the Arab Spring enabling whole populations to break
through the ‘barrier of fear’, political leaders should understand that they
must go along with the tide of history? Not a bit of it."
Published on the BBC Academy College of Journalism blog.

Firdevs Robinson:Turkey's
unruly rule of law (17 April 2013) "After ten years of the aggressive, 'Islam
and democracy' experiment, Turkey is increasingly being torn apart between
contrasting world views and life styles." Published in Open Democracy.

William Horsley and
Jackie Harrison:Censorship by
bullet (March 2013)
"It's time to confront the tide of violence
used by governments against journalists. … Never before has the climate of
international law been so favourable to the cause of press freedom, even if
the behaviour of states suggests too little regard to either their domestic
laws or international standards." Published in British Journalism Review, Vol 24 (2013) No 1, pp 39-46.

Firdevs Robinson:Has
Turkey reached a dead end in Syria? (18 February 2013) "Turkey has already alienated
some of its traditional allies by allowing itself to become a jihadist
congregating point. The perception of Turkey as a key power contributing to
the radicalising of the conflict in Syria is growing. For a country that has
suffered from long years of violence perpetrated by extremists who found shelter
in neighbouring countries, Turkey now needs to be very careful not to be seen
to be doing the same."

Firdevs Robinson:Turkey's
Juggling Act (23 October 2012)
"As fighting continues to rage in Syria, fears
that it would spread across borders into an 'all-consuming' conflict have
been growing by the day. While being publicly praised for its influential
regional role and for providing humanitarian assistance to more than 100,000
fleeing Syrians, Turkey is practically alone dealing with the Syrian
crisis." Firdevs explores the implications of this for Turkey, Europe
and internationally.

David Buchan:Outsiders
on the inside: Swiss and Norwegian lessons for the UK
(24 September 2012) In an important paper published by the Centre for
Economic Reform, David explains why the EU's association agreements with
Norway and Switzerland increasingly frustrate many Norwegians, Swiss and the
EU itself. They do not provide an attractive template for the UK

Firdevs Robinson:Cyprus:
One step forward, two steps back (8 May 2012)
Firdevs wrote this paper following a visit to Cyprus in
April. Firdevs
is the London correspondent of CNBC-e in Turkey and senior research associate
at the Foreign Policy Centre, a London research institute set up in 1998 by
Robin Cook, then Foreign Secretary. Reports by other members of the AEJ
delegation appear on www.aej.org

Firdevs Robinson launched the blog, FirdevsTalkTurkey, in November
2013. It can be warmly recommended not only for those interested in Turkey
but for anyone who follows news from the region, Europe or, indeed, the world.

Jonathan Fryer is a freelance writer,
broadcaster and lecturer on international affairs and an AEJ member of long
standing. His eclectic blog
reports a wide range of events and meetings, including some of those of the
AEJ.